Did we all survive the series finale of ‘Lost‘? The Losties sure as hell didn’t, but did you?

When Kate asks early on, WHO DIED? I didn’t realize what a loaded question that was.

Did I mention SPOILER ALERT?

And they died… In ‘The End’ we see all the Losties reunite in Heaven (or something like it) after they’ve all died. OMG. Did we bring enough Kleenex?

They did not die in the plane crash. Everything we saw on the island happened. But they all die some time, and our beloved Losties reunite in a church once they’re all ‘ready’ to head into The Light. They said this show wasn’t about Purgatory but it was Purgator-ish. They said they weren’t dead but they so are in The End. The rules changed. Ruh Roh. That might upset some people, but I still found it to be an emotional and powerful ending that brought us full circle.

That’s exactly where many of us got this thing backwards: We became obsessed with The Island, the beguiling mysteries and asking more ‘whys’ than a five-year-old, but that storyline seems to have been the sub-plot. It’s about the people and their inner demons, not monsters and polar bears. The purpose of the show was to find redemption, restore faith and ‘move on.’ And the purpose of the finale was to get Jack Shephard to ‘let go’ and deliver the doc to the church on time. For what? His funeral. Even though the coffin is empty. WAIT, WHAT???

The emotionally exhausting two-and-a-half hour series finale went down like this:

See You in Another Life, Brother
Jack fulfilled his purpose, did his ‘job’ and saved the island. The Man in Black was defeated. Desmond succeeded in delivering everyone’s Alt-Verse ‘flashes’ — memories of each other and Island Times. After making the ultimate sacrifice, Hero Jack died on the island and finally joined ‘The Others’ who were waiting for him to ‘let go’ and ‘move on.’

Losing Jack wasn’t that much of a surprise, to be honest, since Jack wasn’t never meant to survive the pilot episode of the series. That was the original plan, so it makes perfect sense that he would be the one to die in the series finale.

All the Whys We Really Need to KnowWhy are they here now? ‘Well, there is no ‘now’ … here.’Where are we? ‘This is a place you all made together so you could find one another. The most important part of your life was the time that you spent with these people. That’s why all of you are here. Because nobody does it alone, Jack.’Why? ‘To Remember. To Let Go. Not leaving. But moving on.’

At least they addressed the ‘Sideways’ time line and gave us resolution to the ‘Alt-Verse’: It’s the Afterlife. Wait, no. It was a ‘Flash Before Jack’s Eyes’ to the life he wished he’d had? Or the Lighthouse window to the world that was never meant to be? Hmmmm, I thought there was an answer there somewhere…it seems to me it was a kind of ‘limbo’ where the Losties waited to have their ‘enlightening’ in order to ‘crossover.’

P.S. Hurley is the New Jacob! And Ben is ‘honored’ to be his right-hand man. Awesome, Dudes.

Lost and Found
No matter how angry ‘The End’ of ‘Lost’ may have made some viewers (and I’m guessing there are a lot of you), I bet you still cried. We got one final curtain call from almost all of the original cast members, as they ‘touched’ each other, and found each other, and were no longer lost, and we cried. Sawyer and Juliet at the vending machine. Kate delivering Claire’s baby again. Sayid saving a damsel in distress named Shannon. (Does Nadia know about this?) Sun and Jin seeing their baby’s perfectly perfect heartbeat. Faraday running into his love-at-first-sight Charlotte at the concert. Kate touching Jack’s face and telling him she loved him. And he’s all like, Ditto! OMG. Water. Works.

Water Is the Key
Speaking of Waterworks… Water. Water is the key in The End. Water is ‘The Source’ of life. Water is the most fascinating of beasts. We need water to live. Jack’s ghost dad led him to fresh water after the crash so his son would survive. We saw Jack Shephard stare out at the water and across the sea many times, and ponder his reflection in the pond at the Temple, as he discovered his purpose. When Desmond pulled ‘the cork’ out of the magical cave of light, all the water drained away and the light went out. Whether or not this ‘worked’ is up for debate, since this is also what caused the island healing properties to cease, and thus, Not-Locke could bleed again–and be killed. But there was no telling that Jack would be able to go back in and ‘fix’ the cork. Save the cork, save the world? Who knows. But when Charlie ran to get blankets and water during Turniphead’s delivery backstage, he said, ‘I couldn’t find any water.’ That’s because Desmond pulled out the cork! When Jack puts it back in the stone, the waterfall begins to flow again.

Water can also kill. Charlie drowned. Sun, Jin and Sayid drowned. Sayid drowned before that too in the Temple Jacuzzi. Tears are our purest form of emotion. When the Island Protector christens a New Babysitter, they bless the water and the New Guy drinks it. Mr. Eko baptized Claire and Aaron. Jacob ‘baptized’ Richard. When Shannon died it was pouring rain. The pilot was killed by the monster when it rained. When Jack and Not-Locke have the final showdown, it is during one hell of a storm. Just sayin.’

Dr. Jack Shephard, the healer, resuscitated ‘The Light’ and saved the world. Because if the Light goes out there, the Light goes out everywhere and then all your loved ones would simply ‘cease to be.’

BEST MOMENTS

~Hurley foreshadowing: “This would be sweet if we weren’t about to die”
~The reemergence of favorites: OMG, RICHAAAARD! LAPIDUS, HOW THE HELL…?! YAY, VINCENT! ROSE AND BERNARD! SHANNON!
~Desmond goes down the rabbit hole and turns off ‘The Light’ and all Hell breaks loose! It also extinguishes the island’s totally unexplained healing abilities. Ruh Roh.
~Jack and Not-Locke have an epic showdown during a storm on That Damn Rock, as it crumbles around them and begins to sink
~Oh my sweet justice, Freckles! Kate shoots the Man in Black–”I saved you a bullet, Ha!”–and Jack kicks him off a cliff. Peace Out, Smokey!!!
~Lapidus, Miles and Richard duct-taping the Ajira Jet to fly their asses off the island for good. Thanks for not leaving Kate, Less-Crazy Claire and my TV Husband Sawyer behind, Frank!
~Jack, Mr. Fix It to The End, goes back into the magical cave of what? and turns the light back on. AND THEN DIES.
~Hurley crying when he has to take over as Vice President of the Island, and screaming for JAAAACK when he doesn’t come back up from the magical cave of what? *Tissue pile spilling over at this point.
~Jack walking inside the church, a meeting place in the Afterlife where the Losties planned to ‘find’ each other after they died.
~The Q&A session between Jack and his dead father, where Jack asked a lot of questions and his dad actually answered them. So refreshing!
~The look on Jack’s face when he realizes he should have rented ‘The Sixth Sense’ before the flight, because he’s totally dead and doesn’t know it!!
~Matthew Fox being the Best Man Cryer on the Planet, especially in the scene where he hugs his estranged dad and knows everything is okay between them now that they’re both dead.
~The ‘resurrection’ of our Man of Faith John Locke and watching him stand up and step away from the wheelchair.
~Love conquers all, and for the record, in the end, it was Jack and Kate, and Sawyer and Juliet (even though Juliet is totally the baby mama to Jack’s son David who doesn’t actually exist–I knew it!). *Locke tells Jack after his ‘awakening,’ ‘You don’t have a son, Jack.’
~Hero Jack Shephard dying–with the dog, OMG!–in the same spot we found him six years ago when he survived a plane crash, as a plane flies over his head. Irony. Heh.

~Is Ben the Last Man Standing? Benjamin Linus apologizes, truly, once and for all, to John Locke, who forgives him. But he’s “not ready” yet to go to church. I assume this means Ben Linus is still alive. Or perhaps dead but afraid he won’t crossover because he wasn’t exactly a saint. At least he can take solace in that he was a Great #2.

~Missing from the Church: Richard, Miles and Lapidus, half of the new version of the ‘Oceanic 6,’ er, the ‘Ajira 6,’ who left the island the second time around. This either means they aren’t dead yet (well, with Richard, that one’s complicated) or they weren’t an important part of Jack’s journey. Remember, Jack never interacted much with the Freighter folk or Richard Alpert, as they were always on opposite sides of the island or 30 years apart.

Did You Notice: The Losties sat at Table 23 at the concert. Saywer’s Apollo bar was in slot G23. The stained glass window behind Jack in the church represented images pf multi-faiths, including what looked a heck of a lot like a Dharma wheel.

LOVE RULES New Rules: It only ends once and there’s still progress. It doesn’t really matter if they are in Heaven, or Nirvana, or on an immortal island, because these flawed people, who were alone and sadsies when we first met them, have finally found LOVE. They don’t have to do it alone anymore. If there’s one solved mystery we should walk away with from this episode, it’s knowing what the island is. The island is love. LOST is LOVE. OMG, this is sappier than ‘Titanic’ and ‘The Notebook’ … and I love it!

Let’s face it, I’m a total sucker for this show, and I really enjoyed the ‘Lost’ series finale, for what it was: an electrifying, exciting, action-packed tearfest. But bigger picture? Not so much. Did it really satisfy and serve the show they actually made over the last six seasons? I’m not so sure. Yes, it’s a character-driven drama, but it’s also a MYSTERY drama, and almost no mythology was even touched upon in these final hours. Really?

In true, maddening ‘Lost’-ian form, we may be scratching our heads over this one for eternity. I kinda wanted to be done with that. DAMN YOU, ‘LOST’!

There was way too much storytelling crammed into this final season and yet the story remains unfinished for many fans. They’ve had the end date set for years, they had plenty of time to properly pace the series and pull off the kind of genius they hooked us with in the first place. What happened? They gave as the heartstrings ending, which was compelling, if a little hokey (“I believe in you Jack,” “I’ll see you on the other side”), but bailed on ‘Lost’ lore. You’re either okay with that or you’re not, depending on if you thought you were watching ‘Lost: The Twilight Zone’ or ‘Grey’s Anatomy Island’ all this time. You were either in it for the character drama or you were in it for deconstructing the clues. Just sayin.’

But does that diminish my enjoyment of the series as a whole? No way. It’s been wildly entertaining and a great adventure, and I think the knee-jerk reactions to this episode may subside and the finale may become more appreciated over time. Although had I known they were totally going to pretend that Aaron isn’t special now or ignore the deal with Mrs. Hawking or glaze over how the Ajira Jet’s Magical Flight to Guam lands you in 1977 and the present (did they pay for better seats? come on, give us something!), then I would have spent a lot less time engaging in totally and utterly pointless theorizing.

Rant over and contradicting myself when convenient (just like the writers!), this show is about the characters we’ve fallen in love with over the years, and it was a beautiful, emotional, fitting goodbye. There’s been a lot of turbulence along the way, but it was one hell of a ride. I’ll miss you more than I should, My Dear Losties!

The producers always said they knew what the final image of the show would be, and in a brilliant-yet-obvious poignant touch, we had our last mirroring moment–the identical scene from the opening of the pilot episode:

Dr. Jack Shephard, laying in the jungle, Vincent the dog next to him–so Jack did not die alone, awe–the final shot: Jack’s eye … closing.